The New Year Mania 2023: a Knex Ball Machine

Hey everyone! Happy 2023! Yes, I know it's March, but this took way longer than I thought. Today, I bring the first instructable to the New Year! This ball machine is something I haven't done at all. This ball machine is based on my fireplace and goes up to the long table that I have. This took lots of thought and solving to make this. Issues and fixing occured. Lots of testing, too. And you can guess it. The lift was the hardest.

This started sometime between January 4th and 6th to February 11th. I'm a month late on this post, lol. This does make one little mistake with the ball pick-up center, but it fixes itself. The spinning thing at the right of the ball machine, centered in the curved track has "23" spinning, if you haven't noticed. Hope you guys like it! Thanks everyone for sticking with me! I'll see y'all along the rails!

Well, let's take some time and see the making of these things

Step 1: Let's Start With the Lift

All I can say is that lift is crucial. Many attempts, and after this was finished, only a few minutes after running smoothly, it BREAKS! I don't know what to tell ya. I'm getting tired of this, honestly. What will I do, IDK.

Step 2: Coming to the Turning Platform...

This was something I've wanted to try for some time now. It had to be tilted to keep the ball rolling. At one point, there were yellow connectors where the grey connectors were, but since I was running out of yellow, I had to replace it. Maybe I will do more of these in the future.

Step 3: The Drop

I love this! I have seen only a couple of other ball machines with something like this. So, I though, why not?
Yet, it took up most of the yellow connectors. This thing is fast! The ball kept flying off, so I had to make wall, after wall, after wall, so it would not fly off. That goes the same with the curve coming next.

Step 4: "Curve Around"

A whole 180 degree spin around that 23. Like I said in the previous step, it took up a lot of yellow and also I had to build walls to keep it from flying off the track. Add ons and add ons later from the start, it stayed in tact.

Step 5: Straightaway

This all leads back to the beginning. The gears are there to slow the ball down.

Step 6: Ball Collector

Lots of adjustments on this guy. I know it looks broken at the moment, all these pictures on these steps were taken a month later than the pics in the intro.